Well , I was finally admitted through the ER in Pittsburgh at Allegheny General Hospital. Technically I was there on November 30th 2002, but it was after midnight until they got me admitted. I was still having alot of abdominal pain across the bottom. It seemed like none of the pain medications were helping me at all. They did blood work on me, a cat scan, and called my GI doctors. All the first night my abdomen ached and ached. The next morning my GI doctor came in to see me, he was puzzled as to why I had such a sudden on set of bad pain like this. Later on that day, on the 1st, probably around 1pm in the afternoon....I started to bleed very bad, rectally. It was coming out like a water faucet almost. Everytime I went there was tons of blood. We called my nurse in, and she called my GI doctors. From that time on I was having blood taken every few hours to make sure I wasn't bleeding too bad. I bled for about 6 hours. I got the news that I was having a colonoscopy the next morning. Oh Joy. That night they brought in the Golytly for me to drink to clean my self out. Thank God I didn't have to drink that much to do the trick.
The next day(the 2nd) They still checked my blood, and I was taken down stairs to the GI lab for my colonoscopy. After the colonoscopy, the doctors told my mom what they had found. They said there was alot of ulcers up inside the last part of my colon, and that they were bleeding. To my suprise I had someone from the blood lab show up to get my blood type. My blood work showed that I needed to have 2 units of blood to replace the blood I lost. I got the 2 units of blood, even though my IV was leaking a little bit. When I would bend my arm half way closed it made my IV leak, so I had to keep it straight. I was glad to get the blood, because I had been feeling weak, plus I did need it. I'm just afraid about getting hepatitis or something from 'bad blood'.
The next day, the 3rd, I was feeling a little better, the pain was getting maybe 5% better. I still wasn't good enough to go home, plus they started me out on clear liquids. The next day I got real food, plus I got to go home. My abdomen was still hurting pretty bad, but there was nothing they could really do for it in the hospital. I would just have to put up with it at home until the ulcers got better. My fun for the month wasn't done yet. I ended up going back to the ER, more than once because I was having bad pain in my abdomen, but now it was from my pancreatitis. The following months would prove to be a real big challange for me. How much can I take of this...pain...days in the hospital...days without food... I can't stand them days.
If you'd like to read the next update, continue on to update 20.
